Family Trees

Your life comes to me in shades of gray
From across a distant sea
I think of you, I hold you near
Did you ever think of me?
 
When your children boarded ships
Did you wave and say goodbye
Knowing you’d never see them again
Did you mourn or cry?
 
Or were you happy to see them go
To where the streets were paved with gold
Though you knew you’d never meet their sons,
And they’d never see you grow old?
 
I’d like to tell you that they made
A new life in a new land
That I am here, a miracle
And that I sift for you in the sand.
 
Did you ever wonder who I’d be
Once your children made it here
Would you be proud of who I am?
Did you ever see me in the mirror?
 
I page through photographs and look
Into your captured face
As if to see is as to know
When through family trees, I trace.
 
I wonder if I have your eyes,
Your nose, your build, your hair
If I could pluck you from the crowd, I’d know
Your face, your laugh, your stare.
 
The huddled masses, one of thousands
And yet, you and I are one
For we are kin and you are my kin
We knew the same moon, same stars, same sun.
 
The time you knew has long since passed
Into broken memory
And your neighborhood has been paved over
Far across the distant sea.
 
There’s no memorial to you
You weren’t great or grand
You didn’t die in tragedy
You’re just a grain of sand.
 
It’s almost like you never were
Existing only in thought
But I remember, I remember
And your name is not forgot.